What A Good Town Meeting Looks Like

With the lights off, the doors open, and fans blowing, Town Moderator Albert H. Bail began last night's town meeting with an anecdote.

My dad had run into George Fortier at Center Pharmacy, and after exchanging some pleasantries, my father told Mr. Fortier, now 92 years-old, how much he used to appreciate the older man's questions at town meeting.

"You know," he said, "sometimes I knew the answers to those questions."

"I had a feeling," my dad said. "We could have used you at the last town meeting."

At the previous special town meeting over the New Ludlow Road Sewer Proposal, voting was over and the measure defeated without any questions, discussion, or increase in the knowledge of town meeting.

Last night's town meeting made up for the quality of the previous town meeting. The sewer proposal was defeated, but not without out plenty of discussion and many good questions. Town meeting may or may not have made the wisest decision last night, but due to participation, it certainly had the information it needed.

Spending usually requires a two-thirds majority at town meeting and the simple majority of town meeting members who supported the proposal last night was not enough to pass the measure. Of the one-hundred and sixty-nine voters that attended the meeting, ninety-nine voted in favor, 67 voted against it.

As more than one town meeting member pointed out, the financing of the project was not easy for the average citizen to understand. Confusion was almost guaranteed by the misperception that the project would raise the tax rate or require an override or debt exclusion. In fact, the project would be financed by a low-interest loan and paid for out of town revenues.

As I understand it, and bear in mind I'm not great with numbers, every time a homeowner hooked up to the sewer, the contribution from the town would decrease. After 25 houses had hooked up to the sewer, the project would begin paying for itself. Eventually, the town would be reimbursed for the money used to subsidize sewer hookups.

One piece of missing information: how many people planned or needed to hook up to the sewer. This proposal was begun in response to the need of homeowners in the New Ludlow Road area. Yet, as far as I know, none of them spoke up.

Mark